The head of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Francis Ben Keifala has in a media conference highlighted issues under investigation pertaining to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA’s) as captured in the 2019 Auditor General’s report.
The commissioner said that the ACC has investigated the matter relating of a missing Le, 5 billion as payment done without supporting document as highlighted in the Auditor General report and had concluded that it was an institutional arrangement that was not properly done that caused the said amount to be noted as missing. He added that part of the money has been recovered.
Keifala cited that the Parliamentary Service Commission was unable to provide supporting evidence on the sum of Le, 23 billion during auditing, and the matter is under investigation.
He revealed that the National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) needs to resolve issues relating to unverified assets in the sum of Le, 2 billion, unpaid loan of Le, 1.8 billion, unjustified payment of Le, 1.7 billion, unaccounted payment of Le, 1.6 billion, unaccounted inquest of Le 554 million, excess payment Le 449 million, unbanked revenue Le 378 million, undelivered goods of Le 70 million and unsuspected inquest of Le 39 million all totaling to the tune of Le 4.5 billion. He insisted all of these issues are being further investigated by the ACC.
“Unsupported spending totaling Le 96 billion; revenue that was not banked totaling 25 billion, GST that was not allotted amounting to Le 11 billion withholding tax, NASSIT and PAYE totaling Le 6 billion, unaccounted revenue totaling Le 4 billion needed to be accounted for by NASSIT,” Keifala said.
He noted that the Ernest Bai Koroma University should account for Le 57 billion on expenses without supported document; the Freetown Town City Council failed to pay ‘Pay As You Earn’ (PAYE) tax which has amounted to the sum Le, 401 billion; the Immigration Department for the eastern region unaccounted for Le, 16 million and the office of the Chief Minister did not account for Le, 57 million.
He mentioned that the Judiciary of Sierra Leone did not have evidence on the utilization of Le 181 million; Law Officers Department Le 15 million; Ministry of Transport and Aviation had not accounted for 70 million that went through the process to purchase goods, but after been audited it was revealed that the goods were not delivered.
He promised that the commission would properly and thoroughly investigate these issues and come out with factual findings.
By Yeanoh Sesay
18/01/2021. ISSUE NO:7981